Hello friends: This is our second email blast (you can comment or see previous posts on our blog) so read on and please share widely!
Final legal language submitted
We submitted our final legal language last Friday, May 17. (Whew! It should show up soon on the Lt Gov’s website, but for now here’s an unofficial link, and here’s our Press Release about it.) Major changes include increasing clean air funding from $75m to $100m a year and rural economic development funding from $25m to $50m a year; tweaking the effective dates to fix the first-fiscal-year problems identified in the initial Fiscal Estimate; and improving the phase-in of the carbon tax for industrial uses like agriculture and manufacturing. See Our Policy for summaries and details on the policy. Next steps: Per the ballot measure process, the Lt Governor’s office reviewed the updated measure and then sent it (on T May 21) to the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst for an updated Fiscal Estimate, a process that will definitely be done by M June 17 but might be done earlier. Then we’ll get a sample petition packet from the Lt Governor and we can run off copies and begin gathering signatures!
Draft campaign materials
Comments are welcome on our draft campaign materials, including this logo (which also appears at the top of this email blast), this small sticker, (roughly 2 inches square), this draft bumper sticker, and—most important for now—this nearly-final signature-gathering signboard (14 inches by 22 inches; here’s an example of how these signboards look in the real world). We’re also working on a t-shirt and a half- or quarter-sheet flyer/handout. Holler ASAP if you’ve got comments or graphic design skills that you want to contribute!
Starting up statewide chapters
We’re starting up chapters around the state to work on getting on the ballot and winning at the ballot. More details soon, but let us know if you want to be part of the following chapters (or start up a chapter elsewhere in the state!):
- The Moab / SE Utah chapter covers one state Senate district (#27) and has a target of 3,950 valid signatures.
- The Cache County chapter covers two state Senate districts (#17 and #25) and has a target totaling 8,009 valid signatures.
- The SW Utah chapter covers two state Senate districts (#28 and #29) and has a target totaling 8,343 valid signatures.
- The Ogden area chapter covers three state Senate districts (#18, #19, and #20) and has a target totaling 10,828 valid signatures.
- The Utah County chapter covers five state Senate districts (#7, #13, #14, #15, and #16) and has a target totaling 20,084 valid signatures.
- The Salt Lake area chapter covers fifteen state Senate districts (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #21, #22, #23, and #26) and has a target totaling 60,897 valid signatures.
These chapters cover 28 of the 29 state Senate districts, the only exception being district #24.
In order to qualify for the 2020 ballot all we need to do is hit our targets in 26 of the 29 state Senate districts plus the statewide target of 115,869 valid signatures. The chapters listed above cover 28 districts and a total of 112,111 valid signatures!(And, thanks to the new rolling window signature-gathering process, if we gather enough early signatures then we will be able to avoid a Count My Vote scenario of potentially getting knocked off the ballot.)
How you can help
You can help by volunteering to join one of the chapters listed above (we’ll provide all the materials and instructions, all you need to provide is your time and energy and your feedback), by donating to support the campaign, or by contributing other talents you have to the campaign. This is a grassroots effort so we need all the help we can get!
Many thanks, and onward!
Sincerely, Yoram and the Clean The Darn Air team